Consider beef Wellington — a special-occasion, labor-intensive European dish of an entire beef tenderloin covered in foie gras and duxelle (a reduction of minced mushrooms, shallots and herbs) and baked in puff pastry. Does this belong in a college-town burger and beer bar?

With a few modifications, yes.

Swap the tenderloin for a Kobe beef patty and the puff pastry for a soft, buttery brioche bun. Top with truffled mushroom duxelle, foie gras mousse, tarragon aioli and a heap of delicate local micro-greens, and — voila! — beef Wellington becomes the Wellington Kobe Burger, ready to eat on a barstool with a pint of beer and game of trivia.

Try it with: Truffle fries, for $2 extra. Order them with Truffle Cream, Roasted Garlic Aioli or one of Dempsey’s other homemade sauces.

Also on the menu: More burgers, including a couple of additional Kobe beef choices, a few veggie options and a handful of other beef patty creations such as the Picante (pepperjack, spicy pepper puree, jalapeños and hot sauce) and the Au Poivre (peppercorn-crusted with bordelaise, house mustard and arugula). Plus salads, chicken wings and black cod fish and chips.

— Off The Beaten Plate highlights some of the more exotic, oddly named or inventively concocted (for better or worse) dishes from local menus. Know of an offbeat menu item we should check out? Email food and features reporter Sara Shepherd at sshepherd@ljworld.com. Tweet her at Twitter.com/KCSSara.

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Comments

The name is misleading. It is very difficult to obtain kobe meat outside of Japan. What you are getting is standard supermarket grade hamburger. Does it taste good? Yes. Is it Kobe beef? No. The truffle fries are awesome though.

Taken from wikipedia-
The proliferation of beef outside of Japan marketed as the Kobe beef is a troubling issue for Kobe beef farmers. Much like how sparkling wine may not be labeled "Champagne" unless it is produced in the Champagne region of France, the same is true in regard to "genuine" Kobe beef. Kobe beef comes from a specific breed and genetic lineage of cattle raised in the Hyogo prefecture according to the standards set by Kobe Beef Distribution and Promotion Council. This council also sets the rules regarding foreign exportation of Kobe beef and has tightly restricted trade with the exception of export to Macau and Hong Kong.

The import of Japanese beef into other countries is also tightly restricted, the US in particular, where from 2010 to 2012 the sale of it was illegal due to restrictions put in place by the USDA regarding concerns about foot-and-mouth disease found in some Japanese cattle in 2010.[11] Limited imports to the US have since been approved.[12] True Japanese Kobe beef is currently exported from Japan to the United States.[13]

However, due to a lack of regulation which would enforce protection and recognition of the Kobe beef trademark, there are many opportunities to purchase beef that is labeled or passed off as Kobe beef, taking advantage of the public's ignorance of what it takes to make beef that is legitimately Kobe beef, in effect defrauding unwary consumers and the true Japanese Kobe beef industry.[14][15]

This hamburger might be Kobe-style, whatever that means but I'd bet dollars to donuts is not true kobe meat.

Ian Stepp remembers visiting his aunt’s house as a kid, where he’d play classic games like Duck Hunt and iterations of the Mario Brothers saga on the family’s trusty old Nintendo Entertainment System.
Now pushing 30, Stepp is still a fan of the now-classic video games that in recent years have spawned a thriving culture and industry capitalizing on the nostalgia of grownups who coveted Nintendo game systems as kids in the 1980s and 90s.